As reformed Road Warriors, we read this article with equal parts amusement and intrigue.  The gist of the article focuses on young “mileage runners”, but I can see a whole class of Boomer runners (Bummers?) picking up this hobby.

This could be the next sport - though pretty dull to watch in real time.

 Mileage runners are the high-tech nomadic wanderers of the air. Predominantly male, generally obsessed with flying and miles, and typically employed in white-collar careers that involve significant business travel, they scour the web for cheap flights, phoning in sick or using vacation days to fly the longest itineraries they can string together.

Here’s what the article writer did:

I was 18 spine-crushing hours into a knight’s tour of airport terminals in Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego and three other cities. Wired News gave me $500 and a mission: Squeeze as many miles as possible out of those five bills, using the tricks and techniques invented by a subculture of airline hackers called “mileage runners” who specialize in accumulating frequent flyer miles at low cost. Now with more than 6,000 miles and 31 hours booked, my only problem was how to spend the other $224.

A really fun read.  The new sport is Extreme Travel

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/07/mileage_runner